Friday, 3 June 2011

Quotes of the week: From dehumanising celebrities to asking Sir Alex Ferguson a stupid question

Jane Goldman interviewed in the Sunday Times:“People who work on tabs have to dehumanise the people they write about, otherwise they can’t live with themselves. They have to think everyone is publicity-hungry and an attention whore, and not worthy of your respect as a fellow human being, or how do you do your job?”

Trinity Mirror Regional Newspapers' managing director Georgina Harvey, interviewed in InPublishing magazine about the regional press: "We have 87 publishers, 70 per cent reach in our markets and growing and we have more journalists on the ground, 10,000, than any other medium by a long way, yet apparently we are dying."

Ex- regional newspaper editor Geoff Elliott in a post on HoldtheFrontPage about the departure of Dave King as editor of the Swindon Advertiser: "I am so sorry for Dave leaving a job he loved. These horrible rationalisations will leave the regional press without heart or soul – and probably without any readers worth adding up. I feel so fortunate to have been editing newspapers when they mattered, though even then I had to make people redundant. Dave’s departure is the loss of another talented journalist. Does anyone running the industry care?"

Hugh Grant after being asked 'How frustrating is it for you that people are more interested in your love life than your films?' by a BBC interviewer in 2003:"I do get frustrated, but I understand where the instinct comes from. When I think about actors I know, I’d much rather hear about who they’re shagging than what film they’re doing next."

Peter Preston in The Observer: "Maybe if Ryan Giggs had gone to the PCC it would have issued an appeal for silence. Maybe the Sun – and the rest – would have respected it. Maybe fear of a more draconian law would have counselled discretion. Yet somehow that all seems a bit of a stretch. The commission, rightly, puts innocent wives and kids first, but it's not the regulatory equivalent of morning-after pills for Wags out on the razzle."Kelvin MacKenzie in the Sun: "It is the first time in my memory that I have seen the High Court on one side and the Press, Parliament and the technology on the other. For the judges who have to face the terrible truth that they cannot defeat this troika it must come as a terrible shock for them to be challenged."

Sir Alex Ferguson on BBC Sport after being asked which player he would like to sign from Barcelona if he had unlimited funds: "One of the stupidest questions I've ever heard."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery